


Twelve Little Ducklings, Following A... Weasel?

by Intellectual909



Category: Naruto
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Adorable, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Attempt at Humor, Big Brother Uchiha Itachi, Canon Rewrite, Canon Universe, Children, Family, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fugaku feels proud, Gen, Hiruzen chuckles, Humor, I'm Bad At Tagging, Itachi adopts everyone, Itachi gets a lot of siblings, Jealous Uchiha Sasuke, Konoha Twelve - Freeform, Mikoto is happy, Naruto is Just Naruto, Not Canon Compliant, POV Uchiha Itachi, Pre-Canon, Protective Uchiha Itachi, Rookie nine - Freeform, Sasuke gets too many siblings, Shimura Danzou Being an Asshole, Siblings, Uchiha Itachi Being a Good Brother, Uchiha Itachi-centric, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Weasel - Freeform, Wholesome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:41:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28226325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Intellectual909/pseuds/Intellectual909
Summary: Itachi loves children a few smidges more than he did in canon. Before he knows it, he finds himself with eleven more younger siblings, waddling behind him like ducks after their mother. Sasuke is disgruntled. Itachi thinks that he can never have too many little siblings. Wholesome, Itachi-centric. Genfic.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 98





	1. Naruto's Shenanigans

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hello! This is the very first time I publish fanfiction and I'm excited about it. Any feedback is welcome :). As the summary suggests, this is a wholesome Itachi-centric fic, focusing on his interactions with the Konoha 12, which wouldn't have happened in canon. Should this go on long enough to reach such a point, it will diverge from canon. I mean, c'mon, wholesome Itachi and sibling interactions? Soup for the soul. Please enjoy!

The day begins as any day that Itachi spends in the village tends to, by asserting his dominance over Konoha mortals through sheer discipline. Itachi, of course, never notices this practice, but it persists all the same. Today, eleven-year-old Itachi asserts that dominance by demonstrating his walk, shaming every ninja he passes as they marvel at his even strides and grace.

Fugaku’s back straightens in pride, although he doesn’t know why. Mikoto senses honor raining like gold on her name.

His perfect steps take him to Training Ground 10, just a ways away from the Academy. Itachi intends to pick Sasuke up, and take a long walk and finally get some quality time together. Rarely does his schedule match up so well, so he will take every advantage, including shunting his training into a public training space.

The Academy releases her students early, today, to dedicate the rest for security checks. A tiny pranking menace had revealed enormous holes in patrols and compromised infrastructure earlier that week. While the menace was surely punished, ninja are nothing if not efficient, and set to fixing the oversight at once.

The menace loudly protested his cruel penance and retaliated by taking advantage of yet another security hole. The Sandaime Hokage, meanwhile, sat watching the menace’s escape from his crystal ball only five floors away and chuckled in his pipe. _It’s for his ninjas’ training_ , he insisted.

Unaware of what had happened prior, Itachi does his warm-up, not quite prepared for Konoha’s most humiliating, functional, and free, tracking exercise.

 _Pop, drop, plop_ , the menace, wet from a stream, rushes into Training Ground 10, making apt use of a cloak-genjutsu*.

Ever the perfect ninja, Itachi whips out a hand to protect himself, then jumps away altogether. The boy, cradled in an amateur’s genjutsu, stank something _awful_. Itachi blocks his nostrils with chakra and lands a few meters away on the thick branch of a Hashirama tree.

Now, here, Itachi might have waited for the boy in orange to leave, then resume practice. He might have gone to pick his brother up, never sparing a second thought to the stinky child.

However, this Itachi holds a deep fondness for children. He lands into a crouch near the menace, noting the whiskers and sunshine hair, hair so similar to a very certain someone, and tucks that rapidly forming thought for later.

“Do you require assistance?” Itachi asks, tilting his head owlishly. The boy’s face wrinkles until resembles a crumpled origami with a face painted on.

“Whatcha say?”

“...Do you need help?” Itachi rephrases, wondering if his precious Sasuke is so advanced, or if this one is vocabulary-wise challenged. ANBU training takes over, eyes scanning the boy’s condition, from the soggy soil on his hair to the redness in his hands caused not by friction, but by chemical reaction. He must’ve touched some foul-smelling mild-acid, no doubt. No wonder the boy had jumped into the water.

“Whaddaya want from me?” the boy retorts, eyes narrowing. Distrustful, which Itachi supposed make sense. “I don’ even know your name.”

“Forgive my rudeness,” Itachi continues, smiling at the sight of the little boy’s puffing cheeks. He had loved squishing Sasuke’s cheeks as a baby. These days, he can only get away with a forehead-poke. “My name is Itachi.”

“Well, I’m Naruto.”

“Pleased to meet you.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Naruto grins wide.

(“Hokage-sama, Naruto has escaped!”

“That trouble-maker...find him at once! Scour the marketplace!” Sandaime said, peering into the crystal ball where Naruto was very obviously _not_ in the market area. No person is too old for mischief. Seeing the young ANBU demonstrate the bare minimum of respect to the one pariah most disrespected, Hiruzen muses. Perhaps, he allows himself to wonder, the village might see an Uchiha for Hokage, Danzo besides.)

“You might catch a cold if you don’t dry off.” Itachi already moves to take the cloak off the boy’s hands. Pale hands wring the cloak of almost all water. Then, the hands wrap the cloak around little Naruto.

Staring at the little child, Yang if Sasuke were Yin, Itachi makes a choice. There are never too many tiny feet pattering around the house and always too few children to coddle.

“Would you like to come to my home? Mother can draw a bath.”

“Uh… Alright?” Naruto shrugs.

“Excellent!” Achievement unlocked: Baby Brother Number Two.

* * *

Mikoto’s honor-calling only increases as Itachi’s proximity to the Uchiha compound shortens until Itachi comes so close that Mikoto knows without a shred of doubt that Itachi will do something to elevate the Uchiha name yet again. Having been a silent prodigy of the Uchiha herself, once, (why else would the main line deem her worthy of Fugaku’s hand?) she prepares by planning her way through the marketplace later that week, to spread word of Itachi’s imminent accomplishment further. How convenient that the Uchiha Matriarch boasts a wide social network and a shiny, clean reputation.

At the front entrance, Mikoto witnesses a scene she’d wished to see since the Kyuubi had ravaged the village. Not as specific as this, no, but she’d wished that one day her sons and the last Uzumaki be friends. If not as close as her and Kushina, then at least friendly acquaintances.

As whispers of treachery wove through the Konoha populace, and the ruins of the village sat unrepaired in favor of other, more urgent ruins, ensuring her godson’s health drifted far from her mind. Not when reestablishing the Uchiha’s social status was the only cushion between them and banishing. Not when she had to strengthen her clan should the coup be carried out.

Still, the wide grin and round face--a spitting image of the Red Hot Habanero--eased an ancient worry. Should this noon go well, and should her sons gain another friend, Mikoto could at last work with a guilt-free mind.

So, not a single word of protest left her lips when Itachi bowed and requested a bath be drawn, the perfect image of a loving mother (What kind of ninja shows all their kunai to their own children, after all?) Neither child noted the snacks on the table, prepared a few minutes before their entry.

Should she squint, tilt her head, and let the tears pooling in her eyes dull her vision, Mikoto could almost fool herself into thinking she’s looking at one or two of the many photographs that perished in Minato and Kushina’s household on the Tenth of October. Whether it’s of her and Kushina, or of Fugaku and Minato meeting for the first time, doesn’t matter as much.

It just...she missed her friend.

“WAIT, YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO DRINK MILK _BEFORE_ THE DATE ON THE BOX?!” a booming voice, a cross between Kushina’s forceful melody and a growing boy’s lilt, resounded through the house. Mikoto dropped her face into her palm. Privately, of course. It wouldn’t do for any stranger to see less than the perfect mother and wife.

“Yes, that’s the freshness date,” Itachi answers evenly, something warm and wholesome bubbling in his chest at the sight of childish posturing. Why did his parents only have two children? They could have had so much more. There’s a reason why Itachi is the most popular among his littler cousins.

“Your house is really nice, you know that?!” Naruto continues to _not_ use his indoor voice and instead speaks as if volume conveys how much of a fact that statement is.

“Thank you.”

“You’re so cool, Nii-san!”

“Nii...san…” Itachi croaks of joy, heart growing three times bigger.

Mikoto does a dance. Completely dignified, of course. Mikoto’s mother is _definitely_ not rolling in her grave. Or rather, in her ash box.

Tucking the squeaky-clean child under his armpit, with a fresh bento-box that used to be Fugaku’s, but Mikoto deemed Naruto needed more--so help him if he argues--Itachi leaps out of the compound, and heads towards the academy.

Hiruzen gives himself a mental pat on the back, and Danzo feels unreasonably angry in whatever damp cave he felt like languishing in today.

Iruka, meanwhile, stares in mild shock, mostly tired shock, as the Uchiha prodigy delivers Naruto cleaner, neater, and happier than he was an hour ago, along with the cloak he so shamelessly stole. Then, he raises his brows as Itachi swoops a squealing Sasuke onto his back. They go off on a relaxed stride that resembles Maito Gai’s sunset moments (with an unwilling Kakashi Hatake) and Iruka promptly washes his mind of that image.

“And where exactly did you go off to this time, Naruto?” he yells, projecting just a hint of his own mother. “You were supposed to stay for detention!”

“Ah, well, Iruka-sensei…” Naruto wheezes nervously, hiding the gleaming bento wrapped in cloth so nice that Naruto can’t tell what fabric it is. “It’s an interesting story…”

“Where is the butyric acid, Naruto?”

“The butt acid? Is THAT why it stank so bad?”

“What did you DO, NARUTO?”

* * *

Sasuke casts a meaningful glance at his Nii-san and frowns. What was the dobe doing with him?

“Nii-sa-a-an,” he whines and pokes Itachi’s cheek. “What were you doing?”

“Just a task, Sasuke,” Itachi answers, hands full of Little Brother, which means the world is just the way it should be.

Unbeknownst to Sasuke, he’d see quite a bit more of these ‘tasks’, and find himself with a lot more siblings than he bargained for.


	2. Sakura Gets A Dango

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Itachi gets another duckling. Sakura gets a dango. Sasuke is jealous. Why is Itachi nice to this other kid, too?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! I was very glad to see people enjoyed what I had. I am busy, however, so this chapter is largely unpolished, which might also be true for any chapters released during the spring semester. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy this and have some laughs.
> 
> Oh lordy is Grammarly annihilating me for using 'dango' without capitalization.

Itachi decides to boost Konoha's economy by purchasing his eighth dango box of the week. It was a Tuesday. The dango shop owner grew so used to Itachi's generous spending habits, that the very sight of the Uchiha fans makes the shop owner think of what gifts he ought to purchase for his wife.

It's no coincidence that sellers of other sweets swarm the immediate right, left, and the opposite side of the dango shop. Itachi's sweet tooth is known to all. From the moment that he earned his hitai-ate (far too early, by many's standards), little Itachi lopped half his savings away on sweets and weapons. Sweets being the majority since he's far too prudent and careful to waste his weapons. The street that the dango shop sits on is Shimura street, named in honor of Danzo's father, Mamoru Shimura's infrastructure contributions. However, Itachi's purchases had turned to The Confectionary street. On an unrelated note, the dango shop owner is an avid Uchiha sympathizer.

Danzo would never admit it, but this besmirching of his father's name had fueled much of his ire at the Uchiha, causing him to brew a nefarious, treacherous plan. Should Itachi's image be stained, he thought, the street would be restored to its former glory.

With a box of three dango in hand, pink, white, and green, Itachi sat on his favorite bench. The other benches felt jealous, as much as inanimate objects could, that the genius of this generation regularly blesses the _other_ bench with his rear-end, instead of _them_ , even though they're better benches with better views.

Itachi, unaware of the ongoing conflict, seats himself on a thoroughly overjoyed bench and opens his dango box.

To his utter and deep regret, he looks up at that moment and sees the shiniest green eyes set underneath horribly bubble-gum pink hair. A child.

A child looking at his dango, _his_. Now, Itachi's known to have three cares in life: dango, world peace, and children. Specifically, his little brother. But as soon as Itachi was old enough to discover children younger than him, and his interaction with Naruto, Itachi chose to reconsider his convictions to encompass all children. He recognized this one, what with her being one of Sasuke's many academy classmates, and having some of the most distinct features.

At this moment, his two greatest values were at war. Dango, or make the child happy? Itachi had never faced a decision so grievous before…

Somewhere, Madara Uchiha coughed.

"It's mine…" Itachi pouts, holding his dango box closer. But...it seems so unfair to him, that a child who so perfectly embodies dango colors doesn't get to have some… Pink hair, green eyes, white shirt. For a moment, he dares to think he'd share. Instead, he turns to the side, keeping the child out of his frontal sight but still in his peripheral, because _what if_?

The dango shop owner gaped, civilians tittered at his lack of decor, and ANBU agents across Konoha shuddered in fear. The average chunin wouldn't know what a terror Itachi becomes when anyone stands between him and his sweets. The missions that Itachi completes the fastest happen when there's a town nearby that sells sweets.

Incidentally, those tend to be the towns with vulnerable children who are, more often than not, the subjects of those missions, but the presence of sweets plays a big role.

The fact is, seasoned veterans, know not to touch his dango, of all things. It became their sixth sense. They send a quick prayer to whatever poor soul had dared infringe, and dash away from the marketplace at surprisingly coordinated speeds.

"Please?" the child's eyes water and Itachi damns his soul to hell 10000 times over. How dare he make a child cry?! Not to mention how similarly her eyes water as Sasuke's do, when Fugaku neglects to pay him attention (Uchiha don't make for children with secure familial attachments). He could swear his heart snapped.

"...No…" Itachi barely manages, before the child's fist comes slamming down onto his knee. Her face holds the determination her future shisho will hammer into her through literal force, and her fist foreshadows the many craters she'll form.

Itachi's leg hairs, meanwhile, wonder if something tickled.

"Fine," he gives in, giving the child one (1) dango stick, and holding the box even closer to his chest.

Sasuke sensed a great disturbance in the force.

Hiruzen desperately wanted to check on his crystal ball. Something monumental had happened, he knew it.

Danzo felt every single one of his rotten, rotten 65 years weigh down on him at once.

She claps, with the world now right in her eyes, and eyes the sweet like a dragon eyes gold.

Itachi stands, his duty finished and leaves. However, a second set of footsteps follow, much clumsier, and quicker than his own. With the clap-clap of children's shoes on feet that haven't learned silent walking, he knows the child is following him.

"Go back home," he nods towards the child and walks on. The patter of feet follow.

"What's your name?" a squeaky voice asks.

"It's polite to offer yours first," Itachi answers, drawing on years of etiquette lessons. Mikoto knows when her sons act with bad manners. She never fails to rain shame on them for a single offense. Itachi knows this, and in an act of self-preservation, follows his lessons to the T.

"Sakura," she says cheerfully.

"I am Itachi," he answers, remembering how he met Naruto just the week before. Perhaps… "Where are your parents?"

"Work," she says shortly, cheeks stuffed with anko paste and mochi. "I went to the playground after school, then came here because the food smelled nice. That box has the nicest dango, I know! So I went to you."

"I see," Itachi rubs his small chin, mentally drawing up a tutoring schedule for Sakura. It wouldn't do to have a ninja who so openly gave information, with neither caution nor direction to what's given. "Would they be happy to know you wandered so far without their permission?"

"You won't tell them right?" she says, barely waddling along with him. Quite like Sasuke, in fact. Just like a duckling.

"If you go home, I won't have to," he answers evenly. Fugaku taught him to be a role model.

"Alright…" she pouts. "It's two houses down the Yamanaka Flower Shop!"

"Very well."

Being a Tuesday, Sasuke and Naruto had also just left school. Now free from the clutches of doting Uchiha elderly, they wander the marketplace and stumble upon Haruno Sakura following Itachi with devotion. Quite literally. There was an impressive amount of devotion in the speed and force she used just to keep pace with Itachi.

The devotion wasn't the issue, however. It was that Sakura was taking up _their_ space.

Sasuke and Naruto agree for the first time since Itachi's affections have been divided amongst them. They might not like each other and want the best Aniki in the world for themselves, but there is one thing they can agree on. For Kami's sake, they will not share Itachi with an _icky girl_. This is a brother's territory! They have no room for sisters!

So they nod, united against a common enemy, and follow the two. This causes a ripple effect that will reach beyond the clutches of the elemental countries.

Two more pitter-patters join Sakura's, and Itachi finds himself with three little ducklings following his way. He smiles softly.

("Sandaime-sama! Elder Shimura is having seizures!"

"What in the world?" Hiruzen gasps, looking away from the crystal ball where his new favorite candidate for Hokage was guiding children down the street.)

("Yashiro," Fugaku calls, and his right-hand man nods in response. "Do the villagers seem… kinder these days?" His brows furrow and the lines around his mouth grow deeper.

"It seems so, Fugaku-sama," Yashiro answers. "It must be Itachi-kun's good influence."

"Is that so… Hn, perhaps there is hope.")

The weasel-mother and his ducklings pass by a mask shop, whose owner doesn't take kindly to Naruto's shifty walk or general presence.

"Hey, brat! Get outta here!" he yells at the top of his long, belly straining from his apron ribbons. "We don't need your filth around!" Should a bypasser look closely, they might notice the red in the owner's cheeks or the sheen on his eyes. As is, the rage clouds all, and the grief stays buried.

Naruto blows his cheeks out, then puffs up for an equally loud response. "You don't own the streets, old man! I can walk where-e-e-ever I want! And you can't do a thing about it!" Perhaps a little moisture collects on his eyes, too.

Itachi tops in his walk and turns back, and Sakura does the same. Almost identical, in fact. Clean, reserved, curious turns.

"Should we help?" she asks, looking up at her new role model.

"We must see how it unfolds, first," says Itachi, never passing up an opportunity to spit straight wisdom.

Sasuke thinks carefully, just like otousan taught him to. He doesn't like Naruto, no. He doesn't like much, as he might once announce in the distant future. But he dislikes some people Naruto dislikes, and this guy is one of them. So, Sasuke decides to intervene. It's good training for the police force, anyway.

"I never knew a shop owner could _want_ to scare business away," Sasuke says, and smirks down his nose, just like Mikoto does when others assume her to be

weak.

The man leans further, spitting his words. "You privileged red-eyed demons, all of you! I'll wrangle your pale necks!"

"I'm scared," Sakura says.

Itachi glances down, hands the dango box to Sakura, then body-flickers to the front of the stall.

"Please refrain from besmirching our clan's name, sir," he says, staring straight on. Civilians and ninja alike have learned to be wary of an Uchiha's eyes, even when inactive. The elders would reprimand him for his rudeness, as it is courtesy for an Uchiha not to look straight into another's eyes.

But he has three little siblings now, and he won't hesitate, (bitch.)

"Oh, another- get out! Get out, all of you!" he screams, until his throat aches.

Arms out, Itachi scoops the three children into his arms, and leaps for the roofs. They yelp and grasp at his shirt, head whipping around in every direction. Thick hair slaps gentle skin, and small bellies roll from the sudden change of movement.

Then, before they could tell which way was up or down, Itachi lands by the flower shop and lets the children go.

"I'm gonna be sick!" Naruto shouts and runs to the closest patch of grass he could find. It just so happens to be the Yamanaka front yard.

"I didn't mean to disturb you," Itachi apologizes.

"No way! That was awesome!" he shouts.

Meanwhile, Sasuke glares at his newest rival. Pshhh, _pink_ hair. Next thing he knows, Itachi will pick up a dog for a sibling, or, kami-forbid, a Hyuga. And she got a dango. Itachi never gives anyone a dango.

"Give that back to him!" he shouts, pointing at the box. "You don't deserve it!"

"What?" Sakura yells. "Ani gave it to me!"

"Ani? Ani?! He's not your ani, he's mine!" Pale hands rip for the box, and smaller hands fight them off. Clan training against a civilian's desperate hair-pulling, kicking and clawing. Clan training pulls through, though, and Sakura falls with a heavy thump. Naruto toddles to her side and helps her roll over and breathe.

"Sasuke!" Itachi exclaims, which is about as loud as the average person's library voice. "You mustn't hurt your comrades!"

"B-but...ani…"

"Mother will be most disappointed. Sakura is your classmate, and she will one day work with you on a squad. How can you rely on someone you hurt? And for such a silly fight, too."

"She...but she…"

"There is no excuse for your behavior, Sasuke. Apologize," Itachi sets his foot down. He doesn't understand. Sasuke is such a good boy! What had gotten into him?

"Sorry!" Sasuke shouts with venom and runs off for the Uchiha compound, where he promptly flops into his futon. Sasuke cries that day, for approximately 48 seconds before Mikoto comes storming in (silent as a cat, but everyone knows she's storming in) to soothe him.

"What happened?" she asks, petting his spiky hair down, the same shade of blue as hers. Mikoto celebrates this win over Fugaku's very-much inferior genes with another tide of affection.

"Itachi never shares his dango with me," Sasuke says with a wobbling lip.

"Dango?" Mikoto repeats. Sasuke was never bothered by Itachi's dango. He doesn't even like sweets. "Why are you so upset about his dango?" She hugs him closer.

"He shared it with someone else!"

"Naruto?"

"No, some stupid _imouto_ , I bet. She's in my class, too."

"Your class?"

"Sakura," he pouts, stewing further.

"He found a little sister, now?" Mikoto exclaims and then breaks out into a close-lipped grin. "You should be glad, Sasu-chan. You're going to have so many friends now, my little turtle-duck!"

"Turtle-duck? That makes no sense, kaa."

"You clearly haven't seen Love Amongst the Dragons, then! I will take you when it's shown in Tanzaku-Gai."

"I don't want stupid theater! Ani… what if he loves them more?"

"Don't give me attitude, Sasu-chan," Mikoto pets him softly. Sasuke freezes. "And if you want his favorite snack, give him yours first."

At dinner that night, Sasuke furiously pushes a plate of cut and salted tomatoes towards Itachi.

"Do you want me to check them?" he asks.

"No, eat!"

"I don't like tomatoes."

"Just eat them!"

"Sasuke, if Itachi doesn't wish to eat something, you should respect that," Fugaku says firmly.

"But-but-"

"Uchiha don't stutter. Speak clearly."

"I...I want Itachi's dango," Sasuke pouts, and settles into his arms.

Fugaku blinks. "Since when do you eat dessert?"

"That's not the point, otousan!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Anyone catch the ATLA reference? I really love the series, and I recommend all of you to watch it! Thank you for reading. Feedback is very welcome :)
> 
> Possible Preview:
> 
> "You can call me... big brother!"
> 
> "...dude, are you a gangster or something?"
> 
> Mikoto stifles her chuckles in her hand. Fugaku snickers so much his shoulders bounce.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I found that very fun to write. How was it for you? I hope the humor hit true, along with the slightly sadder moments. Thank you for reading. Please review!
> 
> A possible preview of the next chapter:
> 
> The child stares intently at Itachi's dango. Itachi feels the need to protect his dango from hungry eyes.


End file.
